Many of the smartphones released this year appear somewhat uninspired and lack that certain originality we’ve become use too. Smartphone innovation seems to have stalled or reached some kind of standstill. New releases look very much like their predecessor or some other device with not much difference in features or originality.

HTC One M9 really looks like a make-over of an M7, M8. Sure, it comes with a new paint job, camera, processor, RAM and interface but they all look basically the same.

From a little distance the Samsung Galaxy S6 could be mistaken for an iPhone 6, with the rounded silver border, antenna markers on the bottom, the drilled speaker holes, even the Touch ID fingerprint scanner appears replicated.

This does beg the question, has the hyper-activity of smartphone innovation and design finally burnt itself out?

Take a good look at Sony’s Xperia Z3, looks almost identical to the Z2 and Xperia Z because the changes are mostly internal. There’s also been a drought in innovation for Windows Phone since Microsoft got the Lumia line. Releases have been very underwhelming in terms of design and features.

The biggest innovation and surprise is coming from a smaller player in the market, BlackBerry. They've been creating a storm of new hardware from flagship Passport to BlackBerry Leap and an upcoming slider replacement to the Torch (Possible Android OS).

This is an obvious chance for consumers to look outside the typical companies to newcomers like Huawei, Oppo, OnePlus, Asus, Lenovo, and other who will no doubt take advantage of the situation.